Police train city teachers to survive an active shooter, protect kids

Oak Ridge Schools teachers and administrators will start the new school year on Aug. 11 a little more prepared to deal with a violent situation if one should arise in a school.

by Russel Langley/The Oak Ridger

Oak Ridge Schools teachers and administrators will start the new school year on Aug. 11 a little more prepared to deal with a violent situation if one should arise in a school.On Friday, the Oak Ridge Police Department teamed with the Oak Ridge school system to complete “active shooter” training for district staff. Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers began the training in the Oak Ridge High School auditorium by commenting on the cooperation between the ORPD and the school district and how it has grown in the last year.“What a difference a year makes,” Borchers said.Police Chief Jim Akagi echoed that sentiment, stressing the importance of the training being given that day.Then came the sound of rapid fire gunshots.Akagi later said the shots were not as loud as he had hoped they’d be. “We should’ve used flash bangs,” Akagi said. Flash-bangs are distraction devices that emit a loud explosion and bright light. Akagi introduced Brandon Sharp, Oak Ridge police training officer, who gave a brief presentation to the assembled and nervous-looking crowd of educators. Borchers’ joke about a mass Taser experiment, didn’t appear to settle any nerves in the audience.Sharp told the teachers that when an active shooter situation happens, they only have three choices to live and save the lives of their students: run, hide, or fight. Sharp said the first choice is to run and get out of the danger area. If that is not an option, then hide from the danger until help arrives. Finally, if confronted with a dangerous person, the teachers have to fight.Sharp told of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech University a few years ago. He verbally went room by room, demonstrating how reactions saved lives.In the room the shooter started in, Room One, 10 people died, Sharp said. Room Two had 12 deaths, but those in that room did not heed the warnings of the gunshots from Room One. Room Three saw five deaths, the officer said, but there the teacher reacted.“The teacher was holding the door open for people to escape,” Sharp said.The last room that gunman approached during the event had no deaths. Sharp attributed that to the fact that the teachers and students went into lockdown after they heard the shots in the other rooms.After the lecture at ORHS, the teachers were broken into three groups. They rotated through three stations on the third floor of the school. The first station was where they learned to flee the area. In the second station they learned how to hide and the last station they learned to fight.In the last station they learned what objects could be used as weapons and when to best attack a gunman. In the hallway they took turns punching, kicking, elbowing, and head-butting bags to learn how to strike to disable a gunman.Akagi stressed that communication is still key to preventing a tragic scenario such as the one at Virginia Tech.“If you see or hear something (amiss in the schools), I am asking you to tell us,” the chief said.Russel Langley can be reached at (865) 220-5514.